Home away from the Homestay

Hi Guys

We´re back in Puno having a bit of a rest day today after being adopted out to a remote island family for a night....

Yesterday morning we boarded a boat for a 3hr trip across Lake Titicaca (the lake is over 160km long! and is at around 3800m or so above sea level).  The first stop was a little island for lunch and a quick tour.. I´d (Katie) tell you about it but i´ve been sick as a dog so i stayed on the boat whilst the others climbed up the hill.  I have a bad head cold and my stomach has decided not to be friends with food...

After another 1hr boat trip we arrived at our Island... the view was seriously beautiful, really clear blue water and for the first time since our trip, fresh air!... We were greeted by our new "mama" who in our case happened to be an 18yr girl!...   We were taken back to the family house that she shared with her parents and brother and a sister... After some time to get our stuff unpacked, we went down to the local football field (which was made of cement!) to have a game with the locals.  I (Leah) was looking forward to playing, but just before we left the house to come down managed to split my head open on the cement doorway to our room...which happened to be a good foot shorter than me!

After soccer we were invited into the Kitchen for dinner..  The kitchen was a separate mud hut-  we were invited to sit at the table whilst the real Mum, Dad and Grandmother sat on stools on the floor to eat.. Dinner was a basic vege soup, then rice with veges... As I (Katie) wasn´t feeling well, i didn´t eat much but the Dad went and got some mint for some tea which apparently is good for your stomach then went and warmed a rock on a fire for me to use as a hot water blanket.. not bad hey!..

After dinner our "mama" and her mum came up to our room with armfuls of traditional clothes and dressed us all up!  We then went down to the hall where they had a band playing and we danced until we fell over (literally.... the altitude made it impossible to dance more than about 5 minutes without collapsing on a chair!)

This morning after some pancakes for brekkie we said goodbye to our "mama´s" and caught the boat back to Puno via Uros - the floating reed islands (check out the photos - pretty bizarre!!!)

Tomorrow we head to Cuzco (where I beleive some salsa dancing is on the cards - and no I won´t let Katie off the hook!!!)

Hope you are all well and talk to you soon....

Katie and Leah